ABSTRACT
The subject of discussion in the article are the results of the study presented in the World Bank reports (World Development Report-2016: Digital Dividends and Reaping Digital Dividends: Leveraging the Internet for Development in Europe and Central Asia, 2017) devoted to the development of the digital economy in the modern world; the main conclusions of the reports projected on the sphere of mineral resources management are presented. The scope of the dynamic development of the digital economy and the economic effects of its successful use in developed countries have provided leading countries with high development indicators. Possible prospects and threats for those countries that are behind in the development of the digital economy are presented, attention is focused on the relationship between the digital and the old (analogue) economies as well as on the need to improve its institutions, and economic policy directions. The article raises a number of theoretical and economic aspects related to both the change in the well-known ideas about the asymmetry of information and the problem of the cost of information itself in the digital economy. The sphere of mineral resources management and the inevitable objective changes and threats associated with the underestimation of the digital economy role in this segment are considered through the main characteristics of the digital economy. Attention is focused on the urgency of the development problems of the digital economy in the field of mineral resources management, the role of the state in this process is indicated.
